


Bounce Back

by Trash_tzar



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: F/F, The Minlace is subtle, buh we're used to picking up the gay subtext right?, sssh 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 16:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7691242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trash_tzar/pseuds/Trash_tzar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isabel Lovelace and a rubber ball remind Renée Minkowski what it means to be Renée Minkowski while she's locked on the observation deck</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bounce Back

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to Secret Santa Summer Hell! Ghost-in-the-library asked for a Minkowski POV and some Minlace, so I'm gonna preface this with I suck at writing Minkowski and I've never written Minlace, but I tried! This has a couple of my personal headcanoned and a lot of dialogue, but I hope you like it at least a little bit anyway ☺️

Day 9 locked in the observation deck. Stage of grief: Anger. Renée Minkowski had spent the first few days in denial. Kepler was an ass, but would he really lock her in on her own for three weeks? Yes, yes he would. He had, at the very _very_ least, left her a bouncy rubber ball to keep her "entertained". Who thought of bringing one of these? That guy was a smart guy.

The only benefit of spending so much time alone was getting time to think. So that's what she did. The same thoughts, the same lines of questioning for nine. Straight. Days. She bounced the rubber ball off the wall to try to keep herself distracted.

How did Alana Maxwell of all people mess up badly enough to knock herself out? _Bounce._

And how did Warren Kepler of all people just happen to have been working with Jacobi on a bomb that helped that exact situation? _Bounce._

How would almost direct exposure to the now blue Wolf 359 affect her after three weeks? She threw the ball harder. _Bounce_

Why would Eiffel lie and hide things from her for so long? And why did she still trust him? _Bounce bounce._

Why was she always so utterly and completely **alone**? She slammed the ball against the wall, making it bounce back and make a slapping sound as it pelted her arm. She winched and inhaled sharply as the new injury broke a dam in her mind, releasing a flood of confusion and frustration and anger in the form of cold tears.

"You ok in there?" Lovelace called from outside the door. Minkowski wiped her cheeks and sniffed, burying her emotions and uncertainty as quickly as they had surfaced. Maybe she wasn't completely alone. She shuffled over to the door, pressing her back into and sliding down it until she was sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, I'm ok. Hit myself with a rubber ball."

"Real smooth, Minkowski." Lovelace's laugh was audible through the door. It was a contagious one, based almost entirely on its melodious quality and rarity. Isabel had been her only companion since she had been locked away. Hera apparently had conveniently malfunctioning cameras and audio receptors up by the observation deck.

"Eiffel wanted me to apologize for him, for not visiting. You know how Kepler is. Trying to snatch Eiffel out from under us means he's is always in Kepler's line of sight. Doesn't give poor Doug much of a chance to come visit." Minkowski nodded. Kepler's plan to manipulate Eiffel into being one of his mindless minions had been obvious from the minute he had brought Eiffel back. At every turn Kepler was sweeping a visibly reluctant Eiffel under his wing.

"God are we seriously talking about Eiffel again?" Lovelace interrupted Minkowski's thoughts, seemingly forgetting that she was the one who had started talking about him in the first place. "It's like he's the star of some shitty science fiction soap opera." It was Minkowski's turn to laugh, the first time since she had been locked up.

"Christ I feel like Rapunzel in here." Minkowski sighed in exasperation, resting her head back on the door, somehow sure Lovelace was doing the same.

"Does that make me the handsome prince?"

"Only if you can get me out, sweetheart." They both laughed this time, somehow feeling years of stress and fear start to roll off their shoulders.

"It's boring out here without you." Lovelace muttered, almost wistfully, Minkowski thought.

"You should try being in here."

"Think I'll take a rain check on that one."

Minkowski picked up the ball again, tossing it up and down in her hand, before throwing it full force against the observation window. She hoped it would break.

"Hey, don't do that." Lovelace scolded, as if she had seen it happen.

"Like a rubber ball could even make a crack."

"It's the thought that counts."

Minkowski huffed, stood up, and swept across the room to stare out the window. It's the thought that counts. What _had_ she been thinking? She didn't have a death wish. Well, not a big one.

"Seriously, you're worrying me a bit." Lovelace insisted. "We kind of need you back out here."

"I'm sure."

"We've started living by the WWMD code."

"WWMD?"

"What Would Minkowski Do?"

"You come up with that yourself, Lovelace?" Minkowski laughed, secretly more than a little touched.

"Nah, Eiffel unfortunately coined that one before I got a chance."

"So, what  _would_ Minkowski do?"

Isabel was quiet for a while. It was a contemplative sort of silence, the kind that made Minkowski sure that Lovelace was easily one of the smartest people she had ever met. Easily the smartest when it came to people she cared about.

"She wouldn't sit and take it." She decided at last, with a confidence that almost made Minkowski believe it. "She relentlessly gets back up in Kepler's face, come out of the gate swinging. She-" Lovelace paused to laugh.

"What?"

"She bounces back."

Minkowski bent to pick up the ball again.

"So can I give you some advice, Renée?" Lovelace asked.

"Sure, Isabel."

"Don't sit and take it. Fight him every step of the way."

Minkowski chuckled to herself as she dropped the ball. Leaving it with her may have been almost a bigger mistake than letting Lovelace be her guard.

"Bounce back."


End file.
